Kokesh Advances to Semifinals at Midlands

Evanston, Ill. - Sophomore Robert Kokesh (174) won
all four of his matches in dominating fashion on Saturday at the 50th
Ken Kraft Midlands Invitational to advance to Sunday's semifinals.

The Nebraska
wrestling team ended the day in 17th place with 27 points. Big Ten
foe Illinois leads all teams at 61.5 points and Virginia Tech is close behind
at 61.

Kokesh
pinned two of his four opponents on Saturday and added a major decision and
technical fall. His pin of Clarion's Ryan Darch in the first round was in 5:55
and his third-round pin of Penn's Harrison Cook was in 2:52. Kokesh outscored
Oregon State's Austin Morehead and CSU Bakersfield's Bryce Hammond 28-1 in the
second round and quarterfinals.

His victory
over Hammond marked the 50th of Kokesh's collegiate career as he
extended his winning streak to 15. Kokesh will face Northwestern's Lee Munster
in Sunday's semifinals.

Redshirt
freshman Austin Wilson is still alive in the wrestleback bracket at 165 pounds
following a 4-1 performance on Saturday. Wilson lost a 14-3 major decision to
Virginia Tech's Pete Yates in the first round, but responded with a major
decision of his own in the wrestleback bracket over Utah Valley's Curtis Cook. Wilson
added three decisions to earn a spot against Rider's Ramon Santiago on Sunday.

Freshman
Collin Jensen (unattached) opened his tournament with two consecutive victories
at heavyweight. Following a first-round 6-2 decision over Maryland's Carl
Buchholz, Jensen pinned Penn's Steven Graziano in 2:32. However the freshman
suffered a loss in the third round to Northwestern's Michael McMullan, 7-0,
before falling in the wrestleback bracket to Michigan's Justin Dozier, 10-6.

At 197
pounds, junior Caleb Kolb also went 2-2. Kolb lost a 3-1 decision to Lions WC's
Hudson Taylor before reeling off two victories in the wrestleback bracket. His
tournament came to an end with a 2-1 loss to Purdue's Braden Atwood.

Freshmen
Tim Lambert (unattached) and Eric Coufal each won their first-round matches but
suffered back-to-back losses at 125 pounds. At 141 pounds, senior Ridge Kiley
and sophomore Skylar Galloway lost their first-round matches before each
winning a match in the wrestleback brackets. However they each lost in the
following round. Sophomore Brandon Wilbourn (157) went 1-2 on Saturday and Shawn
Nagel (133) went 0-2.

Sunday's
competition begins at noon with the semifinals, consolation and seventh place
matches. The final session, which includes the first, third and fifth place
matches, will start at 7 p.m.